When Greg Jaeger won The Denver Post’s Gold Helmet Award in 1976, he understood it was awarded for his work on the field, and off, and it was his responsibility to live up to the honor.

The Gold Helmet is awarded annually to the high school football player in the state who is judged to be the state’s top scholar-athlete. The winners are well-known for their accomplishments on the football field, have a high grade-point average and also do community work.

Jaeger played quarterback and defensive back on the Iver C. Ranum High School team that played for the state championship in 1976. His work in the classroom enabled him to attend Dartmouth.

“I always looked at it as a great award because of the combination of reasons it’s given,” Jaeger said in a telephone interview from his home in the Washington D.C., area. “You don’t set out to win it. You have to be on a good team. But I remember looking at the list of winners each year when the new winner was announced. I remember seeing the trophy, and I was impressed.”

When he played, the Gold Helmet was a frequent conversation subject with his father, Gene Jaeger, who provided first-hand information from Chuck Inagaki, a co-worker and the 1954 Gold Helmet winner from Denver North High School.

While Greg Jaeger was outstanding on the football field, it didn’t take long once he reached college that he decided his best path forward was out of uniform. He played football at Dartmouth through his sophomore year, when the Big Green won the Ivy League title, and then stepped away.

“There were too many other things going on at Dartmouth,” Jaeger said. “It was very competitive and intelligent football. But I decided to move on.”

Moving on took him to law school at the University of Denver, to a private-sector law firm and on to the Kaye Scho ler law firm, where he works today.

Jaeger still has the Gold Helmet. After a time in his parents’ home in Arvada, it now has a place in a spare room in his basement. When he sees it, the memories return.

“We were undefeated all the way into the state championship game my senior year,” Jaeger said. “It was a great example of everyone doing their jobs on our team and everyone living up to a level of accountability.”

During the regular season, Ranum rallied to beat its biggest rival, Westminster.

“They were leading at halftime, but we got a blocked punt and that was the play we needed,” Jaeger said. “It opened the floodgates.”

Next up was a state playoff game against Denver North on a freezing Saturday afternoon, which Ranum won.

“Woody Paige wrote an article about the game and how cold it was,” Jaeger said.

The season ended with Ranum losing 12-7 to Arvada for the Class AAA state championship at Folsom Field in Boulder.

“We had been the No. 1-ranked team all year,” Jaeger said. “We weren’t used to losing. The thing I think about most was the state championship that got away.”

Jaeger played quarterback for coach Tom Hinton’s wing-T offense.

“We basically were an option offense, but we did a little passing,” Jaeger recalled. “Back in those days, there wasn’t a lot of passing.”

A year ago, Jaeger came back to Westminster as a guest speaker at an annual meeting for an educational foundation supporting Westminster High School.

“It was a great chance to go back after all those years and see people who had meant a lot to me,” Jaeger said. “I saw a lot of my coaches, and some of my teammates were in the audience. I never had a chance before to properly thank the people who had helped me so much.”

While he put sports competition aside at Dartmouth, he retained some valuable lessons.

“You’re not always going to win,” Jaeger said. “Win or lose, you have to be prepared. You take setbacks in stride and live to fight another day.”

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